Lombardi's take on the Visnovsky trade

From Rich Hammond of the L.A. Daily News:

"It's never easy to give up a player of (Visnovsky's) caliber, but for the direction of this franchise, this exchange allows us to add two players who fit the long-term vision for this team," Kings president and general manager Dean Lombardi said in a statement.

Read the entire article here.

The Kings are clearly purging some salary that was going to their veteran players, and re-allocating that money to their youthful core.

Visnovsky traded to Oilers

From Lowetide:

The Edmonton Oilers have acquired defenseman Lubomir Visnovsky from the Los Angeles Kings in exchange for C Jarret Stoll and D Matt Greene.

A hat tip to Bob Stauffer from Team 1260 for getting to this before everyone else.

The trade just happened so I think it's important to take a look at it one item at a time.

Visnovsky: His contract is 7M, 7M, 6M, 5M, 3M and isn't complete until the summer of 2013. The annual cap hit is $5.6M, effectively making him the highest paid player on the roster.

Read more on the trade here.

Not very surprising that the Oilers dealt Stoll and Greene, however, it is quite surprising that they traded for a big-time offensive defenseman. Speculation had the Oilers looking for a steady veteran defenseman, and an offensive scoring winger. While Visnovsky is a good puck-mover and power play quarterback, he is quite expensive. Unless there is something we don't know about Sheldon Souray, then I don't really understand this deal. It seems like Lowe has a bigger plan in action here, but we will have to wait and see if that is truly the case.